RENAUD/'LOULOU' MAKES HER POINT

The actress and the role are so closely related that The Incomparable LouLou risks the label "vehicle." The manner in which the production is presented doesn't apologize for the similarities, either. The star herself, Line Renaud, prevents the comedy-drama from sinking into caricature.

Renaud opened the American version of the hit French play in Palm Beach two weeks ago. LouLou will finish its run at the Royal Poinciana Playhouse this weekend and move to Fort Lauderdale's Parker Playhouse on Tuesday. Whatever one may judge about the play itself, the leading lady makes it clear she's more than a music hall performer.

She won the French equivalent to the Tony Award in the role for the original Parisian comedy titled Folle Amanda. The structure of the story, about a famous singer attempting to make a comeback, remains the same. The details have been changed to appeal to American taste by playwright Ron Clark.

"Ron speaks marvelously fluent French. He saw the cassette (of Folle Amanda ). Being American, he knows what wouldn't work and what should be changed," says Renaud.

The decision to adapt the comedy for American audiences wasn't unique for Renaud. Her composer/

producer husband Louis Gaste had an American musical adapted and turned it into a Parisian hit long ago. That show was Irma La Douce. And Gaste recently scored a victory in a courtroom when, after a 7-year battle, it was ruled that the major American hit Feelings plagiarized one of his original compositions.

The choice of Clark as adaptor for Folle Amanda/Incomparable LouLou was partially influenced by the success of the French version of Clark's comedy Norman . . . Is That You? Renaud says Clark's play worked so well in Paris that she thought it was an original French play.

In some respects, the result of Renaud and Clark's collaboration is similar to the playwright's previous works. Both Norman and a more recent farce called Murder at the Howard Johnson's are popular around the country in winter stock and dinner theaters. But neither were embraced on Broadway (Murder . . . lasted only a night or two in New York).

Their appeal is akin to the Jerry Lewis persona, who is popular in what critics call "the provinces." France lionizes Lewis in particular and this type of belly-level farce in general.

Renaud starred in Folle Amanda for several years, and found similar success in a taped version for French television. It was that tape that Clark saw before embarking on the adaptation.

"I love the play so much," Renaud says. "It's very seldom that I see a play that I can say would be great for America. It closed in 1983 and could have stayed longer, but I had made my point."

That "point" concerned her role as an actress. Though she had been successful in French film, most Frenchmen knew her primarily as a television variety show host or singing star. Here in America, she had headlined revues in Las Vegas for several years.

"I was a 'record factory,' " she says. She had accrued numerous music awards along the way, but in recent years has sought to further her theatrical career.

After Amanda closed, "Writers kept sending plays. I refused everything. It took this long (two years) to prepare the adaptation."

Despite mixed reviews in Palm Beach, Renaud feels Clark and director Charles Nelson Reilly did a "marvelous job." And in a sense, they have, in her particular case. Blond, attractive, mature and confident, Renaud evokes the romance inherent in the play. The jokes and situations around her may drift off into Clark's trademark hokum, but LouLou gets her own point across.